How Google Maps Can Hurt Your Business

If you think that keeping Google Maps and your Google My Business page up to date is not that important, I saw this today on Cracked.com of all places. The article was about 7 instances when Google Maps messed up or was hacked, causing local retailers loss of business.

In Buffalo, NY back in 2010, several jewelry stores noticed their business was drying up. Why? Because someone told Google to shut them down. According to Google Maps, the info said they were ‘permanently closed’, which eliminated all but physical foot traffic to the stores. A savvy web consultant determined it was a rival jewelry store in the area that had caused the problems, spamming them with bad ratings, raising their own ratings and tampering with the Google info in order to change the status of the competition.

Another case was a restaurant called the Serbian Crown who lost 75 percent of their business overnight. Why? A customer finally called and asked them why they were closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Without the owner’s knowledge, Google had them listed as being closed three out of seven days a week.

Now… how many of you right now are quickly looking up your Google My Business or Google Maps listing? Good for you. Now just make it a regular weekly task. And besides Google, did you know that the data aggregators send out your business info to over 16,000 business directories? There are ways to keep ALL of that info up to date – contact us on how we can help.